Let me take you back to the time when I was one month old living in Japan.
In my younger years, a very close friend of mine introduced me to the world of cosplay. It was fun to dress up as the anime characters I used to watch and even portraying their persona. I met friends from cosplaying and joined random events from other schools. It was so much fun, though I was not making my own costume, I had to pay a dressmaker to make it for me. I was in university back then and had no other source of income, so eventually I stopped the hobby.
But still, I enjoy seeing people cosplay.
When I arrived in Japan 4.5 years ago, it was such a dream come true. I told myself I would attend cosplay events and any other event any otaku would want to see. Back then, I had no idea otaku is like a taboo here in Japan but I guess it's understandable since I'm a foreigner living here.
Otaku (Japanese: おたく, オタク, or ヲタク) is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers.
You can read more about it in Wikipedia.
The first and so far, the only cosplay event I attended is in Nipponbashi (日本橋) in Osaka (大阪). Nipponbashi is like the Akihabara of Tokyo. If you aren't familiar with the name Akihabara, it's a popular place in Japan where anime and manga lovers go to, like a heaven for otakus. There are a lot of anime merchandise that you can see in Akihabara, and Nipponbashi is like that. Though it's only of a smaller scale than that of Aki (slang of Akihabara).
The road in Nipponbashi was closed just for the cosplay event. There were a lot of cosplayers here and there, it's like a feast to the eyes.
I realized I didn't know most of the characters being cosplayed here. But still, I enjoyed a lot.
Most of them had their own spot in the area, and were advertising their social media accounts.
The owl's real by the way. Too hard to cosplay that. 😅 I included it here because it seems adorable.
Aside from anime characters, there were also superheroes.
There were a lot of girls wearing school uniform which attracted a lot of guys with their super cool lens taking photos from a low angle. I wasn't able to capture those moments because I was stunned for a moment.
There were a lot of people so I couldn't take a good spot for capturing photos. Sorry guys!
Suddenly, people were gathered on the street as if there's something to look forward to. Indeed there was. There were cosplayers who were doing their walk/procession which I didn't understand why, but I think those were contestants of the cosplay event so those on the road were not part of the official contestants. I could be wrong, please enlighten me. 😅
There were a lot of hilarious, gruesome, cute and all kinds of adjectives you could think of. There's a lot to see in these kinds of events.
After the cosplayers' walk, it seems the event's finished. Though I still found few cosplayers posing here and there amidst of the few audience.
On the other end of Nipponbashi, there was a girl group performing. I just happened to pass by so I couldn't find a good angle. Sorry most of the photos were blurry but I just wanted to share them to you guys.
And I took short videos of them, but the other one I didn't post because you could clearly noticed my hands were shaking. LOL
It was a fun afternoon getting to know Japan and its otaku culture. Some photos were blurry, (sorry for that!), as I was still getting the hang of my camera.
Now that I live in Tokyo, I would love to attend another cosplay event in Aki, the haven for otakus. Perhaps there would be events soon now that Japan is slowly easing restrictions regarding covid. If that happens, I'll see you all there. 😄
Do you happen to know some of the characters being cosplayed here? If yes, please educate me. 😅 Would love to hear your opinions.
Thanks for reading!
See you around! じゃあ、またね！
All photos are taken using my phone/camera unless stated otherwise. These photos are also posted in my personal facebook account but you can't see it unless we're friends. 😉